It is desirable to be able to locate wireless communication devices for a variety of reasons, e.g., emergencies, navigation functions, law enforcement tracking, delivery tracking. It is also beneficial for a wireless system network service provider to be able to locate and track customer activity. Such collected and correlated information would be useful in identifying problem locations of poor reception within the system and in making decisions regarding the deployment of additional components and capabilities for the system. One approach of tracking a wireless terminal (WT) is to embed a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) receiver within the WT. This requires additional specialized circuitry and a specialized antenna, adding cost, increasing weight and size, and consuming the limited battery power resources during operation. In addition, GPS reception, may be unavailable in many locations, e.g., where a line of signal cannot be obtained from the GPS antenna to a set of satellites, e.g., 3 or more satellites, to obtain a solution.
In view of the abovementioned limitations, there is a need for improved methods and apparatus to provide wireless terminal location. Apparatus and methods that provide for a WT to be able to receive, identify, and measure strong signals from a plurality of BS transmitters, e.g., from adjacent cells would be beneficial. Apparatus and methods that are less sensitive to wireless terminal position location in terms of the ability to achieve a position fix would also be beneficial. Apparatus and methods that can take advantage of base station broadcast signaling used for other functions, e.g., synchronization, assignments, attachment decisions, etc., to determine device location would be beneficial since the overhead of transmitting signals specifically to facilitate position determination could be avoided.